Johnson & Johnson Ovarian Cancer And Mesothelioma Claims Increase To 30000
The number of plaintiffs with ovarian cancer or mesothelioma has increased to more than 30,000 despite a verdict overturned recently
Monday, June 7, 2021 - An appeals court recently negated a $117 million jury award that found Johnson‘s Baby Powder liable for causing a New Jersey banker‘s mesothelioma. The decision has not slowed the steady filings of lawsuits by people alleging using Johnson‘s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower caused them to develop ovarian cancer or mesothelioma. At last count, more than 30,000 people had filed lawsuits throughout the United States against the health, baby, and beauty care products manufacturer. Johnson & Johnson has had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to plaintiffs that have demonstrated causation between using baby powder and getting cancer. The company doubled its legal reserve from 2-$4 billion to pay legal expenses in 2021. It is assumed that given the devastating testimony of expert witnesses that are going to be permitted in cases currently organized in multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the District of New Jersey presided over by Judge Freda L. Wolfson, Johnson & Johnson is trying to settle the bulk of the cases as it did in 2020 when they settled 1000 Johnson‘s Baby Powder ovarian cancer cases against them for $100 million. Johnson & Johnson has appealed its 2018 trial loss to 22 women with ovarian cancer that resulted in a $4 billion jury award to the US Supreme Court. Visit talcum powder cancer lawsuit to learn more.
Judge Wolfson conducted Daubert hearings in July of 2019 where both sides in the Johnson‘s Baby Powder asbestos conflict presented their most qualified expert witnesses. The judge decided that several witnesses on both sides could present their cases to each jury as the cases come to court starting presumably later in 2021. Georgia microscope researcher Dr. William Longo, the plaintiffs‘ star witness, is expected to make a forceful argument that the reason Johnson & Johnson claims that talc is asbestos-free is that the company used a substandard asbestos testing method to test their talc for asbestos. Dr. Longo‘s electron microscopic methods use a much larger sample size and almost always find asbestos or other dangerous elongated fibers in the talc it samples. The FDA also found asbestos in talc when they used Dr. Longo‘s methods to test bottles of Johnson‘s Baby Powder purchased from local retailers. The findings prompted JNJ to recall 33000 bottles of Johnson‘s Baby Powder "out of an abundance of caution," the company claimed. Reuters reported on the outcome of the hearings. "The ruling by Wolfson will allow plaintiffs to present expert testicancer-basedJ‘s talc products can cause cancer-based on epidemiological studies. They will be allowed to testify that the link could be caused by contamination with asbestos and heavy metals. Judge Wolfson also ruled that the plaintiffs‘ experts cannot testify that inhaling talc can travel to the ovaries if inhaled, though they may say that it can reach the ovaries when used vaginally." The outcomes of 2021 bellwether cases could force Johnson & Johnson to make another large settlement offer.
